Deviation Leads to Aggravation

Archive for the ‘sport’ Category

Standing in a crowded marketplace and watching Germany lose pitifully to Croatia in the Eurocup, I began thinking about two things:

Given that a few early wins by Germany in the 2006 World Cup triggered a surprising surge of national pride and patriotism, would it be possible that a World Cup victory in 2010 would so stir German self-confidence that a shift to a more aggressive, American style of foreign policy might occur?

It is amazing to what extent footballers determine male fashion trends in Europe.

Sport is not an economic activity like any other. Sport is about sharing, surpassing oneself, exchange, respect. Sport is about emotions. Football is a game rather than just a product or a market. It is a spectacle rather than just a business.

Replace “sport” and “football” with “painting” or “programming” and one sees how meaningless of a statement this is. Indeed, an “economic activity” is virtually defined by the very terms which are proffered forth to except it from so cold a classification.

If President Platini would have used “financial activity” instead of “economic activity,” I would be closer to agreeing with him. Finance, like economics, is built upon notions of human behavior for its theories, but finance concerns itself almost exclusively with money, and this narrow focus seems to be the thing to which the President takes umbrage. I still think the sentiment would be misguided, but it would at least be a bit more on target.

Unlike Jewel, if I could tell the world just one thing, it would be that economics is far too rich a subject only to concern itself with money.

Standing in a crowded marketplace and watching Germany lose pitifully to Croatia in the Eurocup, I began thinking about two things:

Given that a few early wins by Germany in the 2006 World Cup triggered a surprising surge of national pride and patriotism, would it be possible that a World Cup victory in 2010 would so stir German self-confidence that a shift to a more aggressive, American style of foreign policy might occur?

It is amazing to what extent footballers determine male fashion trends in Europe.

I had never been much of an athlete growing up, so the fact that I now have two runner’s toes–a result of the jogging routine I started when I moved to Schwerin–has instilled me with an odd sense of pride. Never mind the fact that one of my toenails is crimson-colored and almost certainly dead, while the other can be lifted up like a trapdoor to reveal the soft fleshiness of my nail bed (which Wikipedia informs me is “often colloquially referred to as the ‘quick'”) underneath–for these doomed, discolored cuticles are visceral evidence of my newfound athleticism, and I will wear any open-toed shoes with the appropriate aplomb.

In some of the major European leagues, the share of foreign players now reaches up to 60%. The 18 clubs of the German Bundesliga, for instance, currently employ 153 EU and 60 non-EU foreigners, adding up to a total share of 46%…

However, the globalization of the soccer economy has also aggravated xenophobic violence in stadiums all over Europe…

National soccer authorities are also continually fighting to eradicate the scourge of racism from the game. A year ago, soccer fans in Aachen, a town in Germany close to the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, almost experienced what could soon become a reality in stadiums. The referee threatened via loudspeakers to suspend the match between Alemannia Aachen and Borussia Mönchengladbach — after fans had called Brazilian player Kahe an “asylum seeker.” The incident came only a week after racist slurs were made against Schalke striker Gerald Asamoah in Rostock…

In a more recent case, Dortmund goalie Roman Weidenfeller allegedly called Asamoah a “black pig” after a physically painful clash with the sturdy striker.

My hypothesis for explaining such deplorable behavior on the part of footballers?